Setting

Program Description

We created a year-long continuous ambulatory group-practice experience separated from traditional inpatient responsibilities called the long block as an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Educational Innovations Project. The practice adopted the Chronic Care Model and residents received extensive instruction in quality improvement and interprofessional teams.

Program Evaluation

The long block was associated with significant increases in resident and patient satisfaction as well as improvement in multiple quality process and outcome measures. Continuity and no-show rates also improved.

Discussion

An ambulatory long block can be associated with improvements in resident and patient satisfaction, quality measures, and no-show rates. Future research should be done to determine effects of the long block on education and patient care in the long term, and elucidate which aspects of the long block most contribute to improvement.

American College of Physicians. The Impending Collapse of Primary Care Medicine and Its Implications for the State of the Nation’s Health Care: Report from the American College of Physicians. Available at: http://www.acponline.org/hpp/statehc06_1.pdf. Accessed August 16, 2008.